


The Gremlin on the Moon

by TheMayBellTree



Series: Saioutober2k20 [2]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Existentialism, Fluff and Angst, Introspection, Kokichi is the man on the moon, Loneliness, M/M, Shuichi is a mortal, Shuichi makes Kokichi less lonely!, gotta have that, they fall in love, yay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:34:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27225880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMayBellTree/pseuds/TheMayBellTree
Summary: For billions of years, Kokichi sat upon the moon. He watched as the first bacteria came into existence and he watched as the first human died. He became numb. He became tired. He was alone. That was his only way of surviving.When Shuichi Saihara, a twenty-five year old detective, comes into the picture, Kokichi's entire way of life was thrown into disarray. He felt emotions again. He felt happiness again. He felt intrigue again.And eventually... he felt love again.PROMPT TWO FOR THE SAIOUMA PIT SAIOUTOBER EVENT: moon
Relationships: Oma Kokichi/Saihara Shuichi
Series: Saioutober2k20 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1986190
Comments: 9
Kudos: 128





	The Gremlin on the Moon

**Author's Note:**

> Hello~! I finished the next prompt! Albeit I'm a few hours late in my time zone, but oh well!
> 
> I decided to start making my one-shots shorter for this prompt week so that I can do school work, but I hope you enjoy regardless and that the pacing isn't too weird! This one is a... little interesting and out there, but I'm proud of it!

The tale of Kokichi and Shuichi’s love story was as cliche as it was unexpected. Really, for a spirit of the moon to fall in love with a mortal - an astronaut’s friend, no less. Stupid. Honestly, the entire scenario was so asinine that Kokichi could hardly believe that his immortal soul had fallen to such depravity that it could favor someone that was short of life, sense, and wisdom. 

From the moon, Kokichi had a rather nice view as to the goings-and-comings of humans. Through an existence that had lasted billions upon billions of years, Kokichi had developed vision that exceeded the mere metric that mortals went through - something called a _vision impairment test_ that tested if someone could see, sometimes, even five feet in front of them. Kokichi was not cursed with such a plight. Perhaps because he was perfection incarnate in all forms besides his shitty personality, but that was besides the point.

He could see and he could hear. He saw the rise of the first amoeba and he saw the fall of the dinosaurs. He saw as a monkey evolved into a man and then he saw that man die. He saw families and empires blossom and fall. He witnessed wars from his perch, a source of entertainment in an otherwise barren landscape. He knew where souls went when they died, so he wasn’t upset or conflicted about the existence of living life. Honestly, it was a rather boring existence. He was alone on a rock with no one to speak to. In the beginning, microbes flitted about his humanoid toes and sang. Unknown to the Earth people, bacteria did have feelings. Those microbes were a source of comfort… for a very boring existence, he would find entertainment in their dances and weird religions that they would enact. They were nonsensical and far from the truth of the universe, but he never stomped on their reality. 

… well, except for the few times that he accidentally did stomp on them. Those were accidents, when he was barely learning how to exist as a spirit. Sometimes he would become corporeal. One time, he distinctly remembered a colony screaming in horror when their king was squashed under his toe. It had been a bit of a laugh - bacteria were short of life, anyways, so their deaths didn’t affect him too bad. Regardless, a few colonies stopped worshipping him after that. They dubbed him a “cruel god”; perhaps their assumptions regarding his character had been true. Not long after that, he would smirk at stupid revolts that microbes would hold. He didn’t stomp on them like some kings might, but he would all but spit in their face when discussing the absurdity of their rebellion. It was stupid to go against a god. 

Not long after that, those colonies faded and died. He was left alone. Perhaps he should’ve valued his time with them more. 

He became numb. Time moved fast for him, but billions of years was still a long time to wait for humanity’s arrival. While dinosaurs were rather fascinating and it was interesting to watch ant colonies develop war and commit to the original world war one when one colonies queen had been killed in a coup, nothing quite satiated his quench for entertainment like humanity.

Unlike civilizations that had risen and fallen before the dawn of mankind, humanity was nothing short of eccentric. Humans were stupid yet arrogant, foolish even in their writings about philosophy, and developed one of the first verbal languages known to Earth. Verbal language led to internal thoughts which led to petty disagreements and war at a larger scale than Kokichi had ever seen. Although he wasn’t a fan of needless death, even if souls were merely temporary constructs, he was rather numb to the carnage. He had been cursed with a boring existence. Humans would never know his plight. Therefore, he could watch their petty squabbles. Yes, that was not morally reprehensible. Anyone would do the same in his position.

Two-thousand and twenty-three years after the death of a man known to the world as Jesus Christ, Kokichi noticed a man in Japan that he had overlooked in all of that man’s twenty-five years of life. The man was a detective… he seemed to specialize in solving petty squabbles that turned deadly. 

Kokichi first noticed the man when he met up with a boy that seemed rather intent to go to the moon. Seeing as Kokichi favored astronauts more than most, he zeroed in on that conversation in a heartbeat. When he did, he saw a beautiful fountain raining down behind an intricately carved wooden bench that the duo was sitting upon, wavy lines and modern fashionable symbols like that of a heart and letters carved into the woodwork as though it was an offering to the modern day and a dismissal of the old Greek sculptures that had dominated the artistic vision of the world thousands of years ago. 

One of the boys on the bench was the aspiring astronaut in question. His hair was purple and spiked; the aerosol in his hair practically smoked under the intense sunlight that the pair must be experiencing in the middle of summer. The man was built as though he favored physical activity, though his legs in comparison to his arms were… well, twigs. Despite the heat and the sweat dripping down his face, he wore a jacket over his shoulders but refused to put one arm through a sleeve. Perhaps that was a way to be at least somewhat cool, despite the blistering sun. 

The other boy was… different. Odd. When his friend spoke, he tapped his chin and nodded contemplatively. When his friend clapped his shoulder, he smiled warmly and his amber eyes glistened with excitement. When he was confused, his eyebrows would scrunch together in confusion and his lips would be overtaken with the slightest of frowns, the muscles lying underneath his bottom lip twitching in anticipation as his mind raced for an answer.

The boy was interesting. He didn’t quite know why, but after that he started zeroing in on him a lot more. He started watching his every movement. When he went to work, Kokichi would watch the boy as he greeted his coworkers and sipped his morning coffee (note: he likes his coffee black!) When he visited his friend, a green-haired slob and a friendly blonde girl who liked the piano, he smoked a drug for the first time. Kokichi would watch and his lips would form a smile as he watched the boy sing along to musical melodies his friend - he had heard him say _Kaede… and this boy they called Shuichi_ \- played on the piano, slinging an arm around his friend, Rantaro’s, shoulder as the frustrated wrinkles disappeared from around his face and he gave himself up to the realm of intoxicity.

The next day, Kokichi would watch Shuichi mumble to himself in the morning and sit on the floor and shake as he regretted what he had smoked the previous night. Kokichi didn’t quite see what the big deal was, but he had seen millions of people get high around the world by now. One more made no difference.

Kokichi would watch Shuichi almost every moment of every day. Despite his rather pleasant and people-pleasing personality, he was remarkably entertaining to watch. He loved seeing Shuichi work on his cases as he clicked and unclicked a black pen on his chin in thought while he regarded the notes in front of him (note: the killer is Fujiyama’s uncle). He loved watching him unwind after a long day’s work and grow closer to the people around him. He would watch him as he told Kaede and Kaito about his fears and the anxieties that plagued his everyday life. Through him, he began understanding these petty squabbles that humans indulged in quite often… they weren’t omnipotent, after all, and they had real emotions that weren’t muted by numbness. 

As he watched Shuichi, he felt the familiar rush of emotion that he had forgotten long ago rise within his chest every time Shuichi almost crossed the road too early and every time he laughed. He felt fear for his life. He felt happiness at his smile. He felt intrigued at his personality. Everything… he wanted to know everything. Although Kokichi could see and hear everything, he couldn’t read the mind of a creature. He could only guess based on their body language and words, but the last time he had interacted with creatures he had been needlessly cruel and lied about how happy it made him to crush their leader when he felt nothing but heartbreak for them.

He couldn’t take it anymore. He _needed_ to know.

He first spoke to Shuichi in a dream.

* * *

_Shuichi had been swinging on a swing set, alone in a park and alone with his thoughts. He swung and swung, feeling the rush of air hit his feet as he kicked off from wood bits that decorated the floor of the playground. The swing was rather small and his butt didn’t fit comfortably on it, but every time he kicked off the ground a smile would rush to his face as the cool autumn air encased his body in its comfort._

_He was dreaming. He knew he was. He was a chronic lucid dreamer, so he was aware of the canvas within his own mind at least an average of three nights a week. In this dream world, he could investigate strange subconscious emotions and weird thoughts that he wasn’t aware he felt. Although it had started only in recent years, it truly was a great way to get to know himself._

_He kicked off again. Wood bits flew from around his feet. Although a couple hit the fabric of his jeans and scratched the skin around his ankle, he didn’t feel a thing. In this dream, he could simply will himself to not feel pain. To be honest, it was a great hack anytime he wanted to jump off a building simply to feel the rush of air around him or when he wanted to dive into the ocean belly-first. He rued the day he was unable to separate reality and his dream world._

_“... Saihara-chan!” He heard a voice and it made him pause. What? He had intended to be alone tonight. He wanted to be alone. He couldn’t deal with social interaction, even if it was within his dream. He had been stressed over a case all day. He just wanted some alone time._

_He willed the voice, soft and lilted in texture, to disappear from his subconscious. For a moment, it really did. Then, he heard that same voice lose the soft quality that endeared itself to him and instead a rough growl encased the ridges of its statements. “Saihara-chan! Are you ignoring me? After I came all this way!” Shuichi didn’t turn. What the hell was happening here? “WAAAAAAHHHHH! You’re such a meanie! I thought you’d be so much nicer!”_

_Finally, Shuichi turned. The corners of his mouth crept down and he bared his teeth as he turned his eyes to his imagination’s projection of a faint young man, perhaps only five feet in height and thin in stature. The man was hiding in the trees near the edge of the playground, a purple blob of hair and a pair of violet eyes meeting his as he peeked out from behind an evergreen, the top half of his body uncovered in his escapades while the lower half was completely consumed by the bark. He didn’t recall ever meeting this person before. Was this his mind’s idea of a joke?_

_Despite his worries, he noticed the boy was crying. Thick tears fell down his face as snot budded at the right nostril of his nose, gross and unbecoming. When Shuichi willed those tears to disappear, they stayed. His disturbingly loud, boisterous sobs filled the quiet atmosphere. His nails dug into the bark and tiny fragments of the wood fell to the soft grassy ground beneath him. Even though this was nothing but a dream and merely a strange projection of his own subconscious, Shuichi’s fists tightened around the metal chains of the swingset and a spike akin to an unpleasant feeling of pity pierced his heart._

_“Ahh… no, please don’t cry… please!”_

_Immediately after Shuichi said that, the strange man’s tears practically evaporated from his face. His lips stretched until nothing but pearly white teeth - almost too white to be wholly natural - overtook about half of his face. The man nodded sharply and there was almost a rigidity to his movements. “‘Kay! I feel a lot better now!” The boy stepped out from behind the tree. When he regarded his whole body, he noticed that his clothes were akin to that of a straitjacket, white straps hanging loosely from his legs and broken-off flaps adorning his upper biceps. The man skipped over to him, swinging his head from side to side as he sat in that swing just next to Shuichi._

_“Heeey, Saihara-chan! Miss me?” and with that the boy stuck out his tongue and scrunched his eyes together, a goofy look like a popular emoticon Shuichi had seen fuckboys use on Tinder._

_Shuichi leaned away and scowled. Great, this must be some… weird message his mind was trying to send him. “... and you are?”_

_“Hehe... well, my name’s Kokichi, but you can just call me,” and he paused for dramatic effect, waiting a beat or two before he continued, “your guardian angel.” Then he winked._

_Shuichi’s scowl grew. Was his mind making fun of him for being unable to score a decent guy? Was it saying to give into the weird flirtatious creeps that wanted his number? That couldn’t be right… Shuichi may be lonely and in need of a good partner, but he wasn’t that desperate. Even if his mind did give him some decent advice sometimes, it was still a flawed being. This was merely an example of that._

_“Okay. You made your point. Go away.”_

_“Saihara-chan~! C’mon… I’ve been waiting so long to get to know you!”_

_Weirdo._

_“That’s creepy.”_

_“Creepy?” The man furrowed his brows and tilted his head, a finger tapped the bottom part of his chin. “How am I creepy?”_

_“You just said you’ve been waiting so long to get to know me. That’s creepy… I don’t need fuckboys in my life.”_

_“Fuckboys?” the man sounded so genuinely confused that Shuichi couldn’t help the soft smile that bit at his lip._

_“Yes.”_

_Kokichi pouted and the way his bottom lip jutted out made Shuichi’s heart skip a beat. He held tighter on to those metal chains and tried to quell the rushing heat making its way to his cheeks. “Rude!”_

_Shuichi rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Sure. God, it’s weird to argue with myself.”_

_Kokichi frowned. “What?”_

_“Yeah - I mean, you’re my subconscious, right?”_

_“Hm…” the man paused for a moment before the brightest smile appeared on his face, somehow outdoing the grin he had bared moments prior. “I guess I am! C’mon, then… tell me all your deepest, darkest secrets! I can listen, ya know?”_

_“You should already know.”_

_Kokichi pouted again. “Hm… yep! You got me! Boo…”_

From that moment on, the mysterious man named Kokichi would not stop appearing in Shuichi’s dreams. At first, he had believed that it was merely a fragment of his own subconscious; perhaps there was something to be learned from Kokichi. Perhaps his mind was trying to warn him of impending danger or of fuckboys or of some convoluted philosophical message. Regardless, he found himself more and more drawn to the strange man.

His eyes were a cool violet color (which, of course, lent itself even more to the theory that this was all a weird subconscious message from his mind. Nobody actually looked like that. Maybe he had been watching too much anime.) On the more frequently recurring occasions that Shuichi would look into Kokichi’s eyes, he would sometimes see shattered glass and pupils that were almost transparent under sunlight. When it was night, those eyes were clear and crisp and illuminating, filling every part of his body with ease as he would chat with the man about nonsensical topics.

_“Hey… do you think robots have dicks?”_

_Shuichi merely snorted at that. He was laying opposite of Kokichi, his head right next to Kokichi and his body facing outward in the opposite direction as they both counted the various constellations above them. When he laughed, he heard the faintest of giggles arise from Kokichi, the sound waves making Shuichi’s ear buzz with excitement. “I dunno… what brought that on?”_

_“Hm… it’d be pretty cool, right? Robots have to fu--”_

_“Oh my god, do_ not _finish that sentence!” Shuichi hastily covered Kokichi’s mouth with the palm of his hand. A moment later, he groaned in disgust as the boy’s tongue darted out and licked the offending appendage. “Ew!”_

_“Technically that’s your spit, so we’re good.”_

_“Kokichi!”_

_“Whaaaat?”_

_“You’re gross!”_

_“You imagine me, right? So… you’re the gross one!”_

_“I mean technically but… wait! No!”_

_“You admitted it!”_ _  
  
_

_“No. You’re disgusting.”_

_“Anything I am, you are.”_ _  
  
_

_“Child.”_

_“Jerk.”_

Sometimes senseless arguments filled with nothing but childish names would dominate his dreams. When he inevitably had to wake up, he would awake with a smile on his face. Then, it would disappear, because Kokichi was merely a figment of his imagination. He didn’t exist. No one that perfect existed. He was stupid.

Other times, the discussions among the pair of them would get deep and… tragic. 

_“... are you really a figment of my imagination, Kokichi?”_

_“... yeah. I am.”_

_“Why are you here, then? What purpose do you serve in my mind? Are you only here to torture me?”_

_Kokichi would always smile at that. “Nope! I guess you’ll figure it out one day.”_

Sometimes, Kokichi would be the one to cast a dark atmosphere over the conversation.

_They were stargazing again. This time, they sat right next to each other, grasping on to each other's hands as the moon glittered above them. Shuichi would point out the constellations and sigh in happiness every time Kokichi gave his hand a squeeze. It was right. It worked. They worked._

_“The moon is really pretty, huh?” Kokichi chuckled. “The man in the moon must work really hard to keep it clean, right?”_

_Shuichi smiled and his heart flew. “Yeah. I’m sure he’s working really hard so that we can see his beautiful creation right now.”_

_“... do you think he ever gets lonely?”_

_“Huh?”_

_Kokichi’s voice was uncharacteristically quiet. When he spoke, that lilting aspect that dominated his being was gone. He was no longer Kokichi. He sounded almost broken, like with every word he was going to cry. His voice cracked and he sounded strained. “... he must get really lonely, right? He must be looking at us right now and wishing he was where we were.”_

_“Yeah…”_

_“I bet nobody would believe him if he did come down from the moon. They would think he was some weirdo, right?”_ _  
  
_

_“Kokichi?”_

_Suddenly, Kokichi let go of his hand and sprang on to his feet. In an instant, Shuichi was up and ready to grasp onto Kokichi’s wrist, to beg him to stay, but he was gone. Where that once vibrant man had been was merely a patch of grass now, empty and flattened from the boy’s weight. He was gone. He never left, but he left today._

* * *

Kokichi knew he was stupid to get involved with a mortal. He didn’t understand humans. With Shuichi, he felt alive and mortal and so many feelings that he didn’t know how to process them. He didn’t know how to be with Shuichi. He didn’t know how to be alive. Shuichi didn’t even know he was alive. 

He was good at watching. He was good at observing. He wasn’t too good at understanding, but he felt that understanding was more dangerous than numbness. When he understood, he understood their mortality and short lifespan. He understood their fear. He understood the perils of being mortal. He realized that sometimes petty disagreements were understandable and that sometimes life was cruel. He found out that the moon was merely another facet of that cruel life.

When he sat upon the moon, he was at home and utterly alone. On Earth - or at least in Shuichi’s mind - the moon was this beautiful, mysterious specimen that existed for nothing but to shine light on others when everything was dark. He was a tool for mortals to rely on. He controlled tides and he was a source of gravity. He was one of the principal reasons for life’s ability to exist on Earth.

He didn’t visit Shuichi again for a while. For weeks after his departure, Kokichi noticed Shuichi walked with slumped shoulders and he dragged his feet. When questioned about what was wrong, he always said it was “something silly.” It was “just a dream.” Yet, as time went on, he didn’t fail to notice how Shuichi would spend a little bit of extra time outdoors at night. He never failed to notice when Shuichi would smile at the moon and wave. Sometimes, he would sleep outdoors and talk to himself about everything and nothing. He would talk about his day. He would talk about his friends. He would talk about what was going on with the world at large. For a couple years, he just talked to the moon.

One day, he even said: “I hope you’re not as lonely anymore.”

Surely, Shuichi didn’t know. Kokichi worked on logic and cold, hard facts. He knew that Shuichi had no basis to believe that Kokichi was the man on the moon simply because of a dream. Still… perhaps his words had struck a chord with Shuichi. Shuichi always seemed a bit lonely too, even when he was with his friends… maybe he understood the moon. Maybe he wanted to be friends with the moon.

_How ridiculous._

Still, on Shuichi’s thirty-first birthday, he visited Shuichi in a dream.

_“Hey… Shuichi.” When Shuichi heard his voice, he saw Shuichi freeze. Like he had in a dream years ago, he sat on a swing set. His toes bit into the wood bits beneath the swings and every so often he would kick them up. A moment after he spoke, Shuichi jumped up from the swingset and spun towards Kokichi, his jaw dropped as he regarded the shorter man standing before him._

_“K-Kokichi… hey…”_

_Shuichi started rushing towards Kokichi, a smile starting to spread across his pale lips, but Kokichi immediately put up a hand to stop him. The other boy stopped short and tilted his head, akin to the very pose Kokichi had adopted years ago from this very same boy. “S-Stop it, okay?” despite the tough persona Kokichi liked to put on around Shuichi, he could not hide the crack in his voice and the stutter that followed. He could not hide the tears that started welling in his eyes and the emotions that flooded into his immortal body every time he was near Shuichi. “Stop… watching the moon. He’s not lonely, okay? That was a joke. Stop wasting your life.”_

_“Kokichi… I want yo--I want the moon to have friends too, you know? I’m sure the man on the moon is lonely. You were right.”_

_“Y-You don’t understand how much it must hurt him to see you every night, you know? You don’t understand. I’m sure he has to distance himself from everyone, so stop trying to be friends with him, okay? He doesn’t -- he probably doesn’t want anything to do with you.”_

_At that, Shuichi smiled. He smiled and his eyes were so warm and understanding that it made Kokichi feel a million things that he didn’t understand and that he didn’t want to understand. He wanted to be alone. No, he_ needed _to be alone. If he wasn’t… then… he would just repeat a cycle. He would see death and feel numbness. He had lived billions of years. He didn’t want this. He didn’t need this. He… couldn’t want this._

_When Shuichi smiled, although he didn’t understand most of his emotions, he felt one familiar one as clear as day._

_Anger._

_“STOP THAT!”_

_Shuichi paused. His smile fell. Good._

_“Stop looking at me like you understand anything! You don’t get it, okay? You don’t understand what he’s gone through! Everyone leaves, okay? He has had to watch every single thing to ever exist on this planet die! I’m sure he has to stay numb, right? I’m sure he has to be alone, right? How selfish can you be?”_

_“Ah… no… I didn’t mean.” Shuichi walked towards Kokichi and reached his hand towards his face as though he were about to cradle it. In his fit of fury, Kokichi smacked it away. The tears in his eyes were angry and irrational and god -- he just wanted someone. He wanted someone that wouldn’t die. “K-Kokichi…”_

_“S-Stop staring at me with pity… you don’t know anything… you don’t get…” a sob tore itself from his throat. “You don’t get anything… you don’t understand anything…”_

_Shuichi came closer and enveloped Kokichi in a hug. Kokichi didn’t push him away. He melted into Shuichi’s arms. They were soft and warm and he smelled crisp and clean - like fresh laundry, he assumed. He wanted to stay in those arms forever. He wanted Shuichi to live forever. Then maybe they could live together forever. They could be the men on the moon. That would be fun, right?_

_“You don’t have to be lonely anymore. You don’t have to be alone anymore. As long as I’m alive, I’ll be here. If the man on the moon exists… I’m sure we could figure out a way for me to exist with you, too. I could exist after I die. We could exist together. Forever.”_

_Kokichi didn’t tell Shuichi that most souls faded from existence the moment their host died. Sometimes, a soul would stick around and become a spirit. These occurrences were rare… they were one in a billion, really. Still, Kokichi couldn’t help the blossom of hope that erupted in his chest at the thought of eternity with Shuichi. He lifted his hands and fisted the back of Shuichi’s shirt, burying his head into his chest as he silently cried. Shuichi’s shirt was getting wet and Kokichi was sure that the position they were in was uncomfortable for him, but he didn’t complain. He simply rubbed Kokichi’s back and whispered affirmations in his ear. He told him how much he cared about him. He told him how he wouldn’t be lonely anymore._

_He told him “I love you, Kokichi.”_

_Kokichi didn’t understand these mortal feelings he was feeling or the blossom of warmth in his chest, but he thought it might be something like love, too. “I… think I do too. I think I love you.”_

_Then Shuichi nodded and Kokichi felt the other boy smile against his hair. His hold tightened._

_Maybe Kokichi’s curse of an eternity alone would be broken and he would become mortal. Maybe Shuichi would become a spirit. Either way, he couldn’t help but hope for an optimal outcome. He couldn’t help but hope that Shuichi’s love would be eternal and that he would never let go._

_For a lifetime, Kokichi visited Shuichi._

_For an eternity, they were together._

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed! The next prompt is... jester! Oooh~! I wonder what I can do with that? Hehe...
> 
> JOIN THE SAIOUMA PIT: https://discord.gg/5a35Yyx  
> TWITTER: @M_BTree


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